


Paternity & Family

by Dejihuam



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Keith (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Baby Lotor (Voltron), Good Zarkon (Voltron), Honerva and Keith are siblings, Honerva never became Haggar, M/M, Mpreg, No Voltron Lions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:42:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27448081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dejihuam/pseuds/Dejihuam
Summary: Fatherhood. A word that is currently worth sleepless nights and countless business documents scrawled over with colored chalk (Zarkon doesn't even want to know how Lotor managed to color his pad).However the fact is, the fearsome Galra emperor, leader of half the known universe, destroyer of several rebel planets, the most powerful dictator who has ever existed since the creation of stellar bodies, the incredible and magnificent Zarkon, believes that paternity must be the biggest trap created by living beings.And he fears to know what war antics Keith had to perform to take care Lotor. One can hardly imagine how much Zarkon wanted to leave this to the servants to deal with, but when your consort emperor is a short Altean who eliminated competition from suitors using only a sewing needle you learn that even thinking of refusing an order from him is more troublesome than facing death.
Relationships: Keith/Zarkon (Voltron)
Kudos: 36





	Paternity & Family

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tommy_Kill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tommy_Kill/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Paternity & Family](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25742560) by [Tommy_Kill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tommy_Kill/pseuds/Tommy_Kill). 



> THIS IS NOT MY ORIGINAL WORK!
> 
> This is a translation of Tommy_Kill’s “Paternity & Family.” This is gifted to them so, please, go check them out if you liked this!
> 
> This is posted with permission.

_ I can't take this anymore, Zarkon, I'm six months pregnant with twins and I have to deal with the duties of a consort emperor, not to mention taking care of Lotor which requires a lot of time with him being the crown prince. My feet and back hurt all day, I have a headache every meeting and I hardly pay attention because of that, I almost signed an amnesty for the Gronkklis unintentionally for the love of the gods!! _

**_ I AM TIRED! _ **

_ I'm taking a vacation and that's non-negotiable! I am not asking for permission or understanding, I am leaving indefinitely until I have patience for the empire. My mother will replace me in the exclusive affairs of the emperor consort and the rest is up to you. _

_ I am bringing Honerva with me since she is monitoring my pregnancy and thank the heavens if I return before giving birth. How dare you let your consort emperor stress to that point Zarkon? The only reason I don’t just drop you in the first black hole I find is because I don't want my children to grow up as their father! _

_ In fact, I'm not taking Lotor, it hurts me to separate from my sweet little blueberry, but Honerva is right when she says that you barely pay attention to your own child beyond the minimum necessities. In all these years you have never changed his diaper, given him a bath, or fed him! He is your son Zarkon. Do you happen to want your son to grow up without any regard for you? I‘m not going to apologize. Starting today you will take care of Lotor. _

_ That means bathing, helping him getting dressed, doing his hair, taking him places, always asking about his classes when you pick him up from tutors, every 3 hours take him to the bathroom to make sure he won't forget and get his pants dirty, at 3PM it's time to play and you MUST play with him even if it’s just for a minute, you do the same at 7PM, make sure to help him eat, before he goes to sleep ask how his day went and listen to everything he says without question, praise him for the good things he did and scold him for his bad deeds without physical punishment, make sure he’s bathed and his teeth are brushed before putting him bed, and tell him bedtime stories until he falls asleep. _

_ And do it all ON YOUR OWN. Only ask for help regarding advice. I have already left an order for the servants to not interfere in taking care of Lotor beyond the minimum necessary, telling you how to do something correctly, and where to take him for tutoring classes. _

_ And believe me. _

_ I'll know if you let someone else take care of Lotor. _

_ Don't challenge me, Zarkon, you need to get close to your son, he doesn't even call you dad anymore! This cannot continue, from now on you will raise your child as I did all these decaphobes! _

_ I hope to return with you both being father and son as you should have been from the beginning. Don't let me down, Zarkon, it's our son we're talking about here. Please love him beyond words, he needs your presence to know that he is loved. Lotor is just a child and does not understand why his father never played with him at least once. _

_ I love you and I hope to return soon. _

_ With love, _

_ your soul mate. _

-

That was the letter, Keith's elegant and beautiful writing getting lost in the mess and scribbles he wrote when he seemed to get excited, it almost looked like two different people writing the same letter. Nevertheless, Zarkon could say only halfway through that this was just his soulmate being hysterical with all the pregnancy hormones, however with the contents of the letter in mind Zarkon knows that the only one he owes an apology to is himself.

Keith was angry.

Really angry.

Zarkon can only be grateful that his consort emperor chose to go on vacation instead of shouting all his anger. Gods know how close he was to losing his head- literally - the last time Keith was stressed to that point. Coincidentally, it was at Lotor's pregnancy period.

"Sir, where's daddy?" Lotor says pulling on the end of his coat to draw his attention away from the letter.

And it hurt.

The truth was, Lotor did not even have Zarkon as a father in his eyes. Where did he begin to make such huge mistakes that his own son no longer considered him a father? Perhaps, Zarkon muses, Lotor does indeed want to. But the distance between the two of them is too big for the little 4-year-old to even try to shorten.

Now that he stops to think, has Zarkon ever played with his son? He does not remember having once been with Lotor when Keith was not able to give the child the necessary care and attention he needed. Zarkon sighs, realizing his mistake for the first time in years.

"Your daddy had to go on a trip with his aunt Honerva" Zarkon tries to explain to the child that he knows how it feels to be very attached to Keith, but when he sees those little eyes look get wet, Zarkon instead opts to simply pull the child into his arms, resting Lotor on his lap.

“Did Daddy leave? Why?” Lotor asks trying to keep in his tears as a big boy would, he doesn't want to look like a crybaby just because his dad wasn't there.

"He did not leave, he will be back, just ..." Zarkon tries to think of an excuse that could calm the little boy, luckily he already knows what can work. "Your daddy decided to do his prayers at the temple of the Gods earlier, that is all. As soon as Keith finishes praying to the Gods and Saints for the protection of his unborn twins he will be back," Zarkon says. He wanted to wipe the tears from his son's eyes, but he felt too out of place.

He has never done this before, it is easier to praise and speak to Lotor from a distance, but when it comes to physical contact it is difficult to know what to do. In the first few phobes of Lotor's life Zarkon was terrified of holding his son and risk he fall, or worse; crush the baby’s too small in skull in his large, strong hands. Zarkon had nightmares where Lotor would fall from his lap several times and, in the end, Keith was the only one of the two to touch Lotor until the baby was two decaphobes old. Remembering all this makes Zarkon realize just how negligent he was with his son. Now he understands why Keith told him to spend more time with Lotor.

"I understand, but shouldn't you be going too?" Lotor asks, convinced that Keith did not just leave, but still with doubt. His aunt Honerva once said that couples were to say prayers to the Gods and Saints for the protection of their children together, so why is Zarkon still here?

"Who would be the one to take care of you?" Zarkon justifies and Lotor had on his tongue a whole list of 10 different people who could take care of him if Keith was out, but he was more surprised that Zarkon was left to take care of him, as the emperor was not even on his list of caregivers.

"Are you going to take care of me?" Lotor asks in shock. Was he dreaming? It looked like one of his dreams in which Zarkon played with him and hugged him all day.

"Yes," Zarkon simply replied and he watched his son's surprise turn into genuine happiness. Heavens, did he neglect his son so much that something like this seemed surprising? He can't let that stay, Zarkon has to fix the mistakes he’s made in regards to Lotor.

"This is going to be so cool!" Lotor says laughing in delight at his cute childish tone and doesn't hesitate to hug Zarkon. "Thank you, Lord Emperor!" Lotor thanks him, far too happy for something so simple and Zarkon prefers to let the boy keep imagining that he decided to stay with his son instead of being threatened by Keith, but one thing that Zarkon refuses to let remain is the ‘Lord Emperor’ title. Lotor is his son and does not have to call Zarkon that.

"Do not call me that, I am your father and nothing else, not even you Emperor.” Zarkon separates the hug as he speaks, making sure that Lotor looks him in the eye while listening to this. He wants to make sure that his son understands that everything is fine.

"Dad…" Lotor says slowly as if he's testing how the word comes out.

"That's right, dad" Zarkon encourages and Lotor‘s face breaks out into a huge smile and he squirms out of his father's lap.

"Dad! Dad! Dad!" Lotor starts to say running around the room and Zarkon can do nothing but smile at seeing his son's joy over something so simple.

However, in the next minute, Lotor was out of the recreation room, running around the castle shouting 'father' as if there was no morning.

Zarkon spent a good 30 minutes searching to find Lotor by the fountain in the garden, telling the servants that he was going to play and talk to his father a lot.

** Fatherhood and Family **

  
  
  


"Shall we have coffee?" It was the third-day taking care of Lotor and Zarkon finally figured out how to tie his son's cloak, but the hair was still a problem, Zarkon choosing only to tie it in a ponytail instead of any braiding.

"Today I have breakfast with the apprentices in the military squad," Lotor says and Zarkon froze with the new information.

"Because?" Zarkon asks trying to understand why Lotor would be with other apprentices so soon.

Galra children tend to become apprentices about 6 decaphobes after kindergarten, they usually begin their first years of apprenticeship by doing several different activities to discover their talents. Then, at 7 decaphobes they officially start learning in the chosen branch. But Lotor is only 4 decaphobes old.

"I-I was playing at the central command a few months ago, Dad was discussing a project that was failing with some engineers" Lotor looked ashamed and looked at him expectantly as if he expected some strong reaction from what he is telling. “Zethrid and I were playing while our country was busy until I saw the robot's assembly scheme, I wanted to draw some things that I thought would be cool for it to have, and crossed out what I didn't like. Dad scolded me because it was an important project, but Zethrid's father started thanking me” Lotor pauses, his cheeks turning red and an animated smile appearing as he speaks.

“I did it right! I fixed their problem with the filtered quintessence transfuser and the ZH plutonium engine, the water expedition robot was ready the next day!" Lotor says excitedly not taking his eyes off his father, it was clear he was expecting a compliment. Anything that would show Zarkon was happy with him being smart.

"That is amazing son, I… I am proud, my boy. You did well,” Zarkon replies, genuinely proud of his son. And when seeing how radiant Lotor got when hearing the compliment, Zarkon can’t help but feel bad for never having praised him in such a way before.

"Daddy let me be part of the apprentice group only on weekends so I could do kindergarten. Dad, I did a quantum equation last week, it was so cool!” Lotor continued chattering all the way to the military squad where the general technology instructor was surrounded by other children over 7 years old, including Zethrid.

Zarkon leaves Lotor with the group with a kiss on the forehead and the promise that he will be back when Lotor finishes his classes. Within dobashes Zarkon was in his personal office looking for anything on the trip to the central command that Keith took Lotor to.

It took 2 vargass of searching, but he found a voicemail from Keith that day in the message box he had heard but was too busy with something else to have truly paid attention too.

"Zarkon! I've been trying to call you for vargas! I been trying to tell you that Lotor did something quite amazing today! Remember the marine exploration project on aquatic planets that we started the last phobe? Remember that we had the problem of robots not operating at their full capacity underwater? Lotor solved that! Our little boy managed to solve an equation that even our most qualified engineer cannot! I could never imagine that when Lotor read those advanced physics and engineering books, he was actually understanding everything. Books alone really can be an incredible teacher considering that Lotor is such a little genius. We have to celebrate this when we get back to the castle! So don’t you dare schedule anything for the 22nd, we are celebrating with family!”

That was the message left by Keith.

However, when he arrived at the castle with his son on the 22nd, Zarkon had already left for an alliance meeting with a people on the other side of the galaxy.

Zarkon, realizing that he blatantly ignored a huge achievement by his heir son was like a slap on the face. And alone in his office, while trying not to cry because he had been such a bad father all this time, he made a promise. He will do anything to make up for those 4 years of neglect.

** Fatherhood and Family **

  
  


  
  


Fatherhood. A word that is currently worth sleepless nights and countless business documents scrawled over with colored chalk (Zarkon doesn't even want to know how Lotor managed to color his pad).

However the fact is, the fearsome Galra emperor, leader of half the known universe, destroyer of several rebel planets, the most powerful dictator who has ever existed since the creation of stellar bodies, the incredible and magnificent Zarkon, believes that paternity must be the biggest trap created by living beings.

And he fears to know what war antics Keith had to perform to take care Lotor. One can hardly imagine how much Zarkon wanted to leave this to the servants to deal with, but when your consort emperor is a short Altean who eliminated competition from suitors using only a sewing needle you learn that even thinking of refusing an order from him is more troublesome than facing death.

But no, Zarkon should not think about leaving it to others to deal with a duty that belongs to him. He promised to be the father that Lotor deserves and he will be at any and all costs.

Zarkon just wanted this cost to not be his papers and files with content of high importance to the Empire.

"Dad!” Lotor calls out to Zarkon, who was just covering him with the blanket to have him go to sleep.

"Yes?" He responds by showing that he has all his attention on his son and avoids letting his fatigue sleep through his expression when he knows that he is going to stay up early recovering the damaged files.

"These have been some of the best quintants of my entire life so... thanks for being my dad. I love you very, very much, father," Lotor says looking at his hands. He seems ashamed and Zarkon felt his heart melt with the words of his beloved son.

"I love you, too, son. Really, really" Zarkon says feeling like he could cry with joy and emotion. Lotor smiles back happily, but then yawns and the next second he is fast asleep. For the first time Lotor feels that he doesn't need stories of fairy tales and true love to sleep peacefully because his father said he loves him. And that’s enough.

At the office, Zarkon stops to observe a drawing that Lotor seemed to have hidden in his drawer and finally breaks down in tears when he sees the drawing, a colored picture made from Lotor’s crayons illustrating Zarkon and Lotor in what appeared to be the garden and on the top of the sheet written in blue crayon: 'me and my super dad.’

The next day the drawing was framed on top of Zarkon's desk facing him, a reminder of the wonderful reward he received from his son.

Being loved by your child.

How was he living all these years without it?

He does not understand that, but from now on, Zarkon has plenty of time to build only good memories with his son.

** Fatherhood and Family **

"Dad! Look! Look! Look!" Little Lotor appears in his father's room beaming, he jumps on the bed calling to his father until Zarkon decides to wake up, but the emperor opens his eyes thinking he must be dreaming because Lotor was wielding a severed arm from some robot sentry, his cheek with a cut and his clothes destroyed with burns and tears. Did he fight the sentry?

Gods, Zarkon swears he doesn't know what to do to stop Lotor from getting involved in a mess. It is already the thirteenth time that Lotor attacked a sentry to dismount because ‘I think it would be fun to change some of the robot's configuration.’ This apprentice work is making Lotor a bit too eager to do more and more.

"Your daddy can never know about this," Zarkon says, gently tugging on the color of Lotor’s shredded shirt, knowing full well that Keith would torture him if he found out that his son was at some risk, even the slightest.

"What can't I know about?" A voice calls out from the bedroom door, prompting both Zarkon and Lotor both snap their heads around at the door when they recognize the voice, Zarkon sitting up quickly.

"Love! / Daddy!" Zarkon and Lotor say at the same time and quickly run to the Altean who laughs in surprise when Zarkon scoops up Lotor for the two of them to hug.

"I'm back my loves," Keith says returning the warm hug.

"Daddy's back. Does that mean we can all play together now?" Lotor asks, separating himself from the embrace and looking at both parents expectantly, he really feared that with Keith's return, Zarkon would go back to ignoring him as he did before.

"Of course, we had a plan to prepare Dad a huge picnic when he returned, didn't we?" Zarkon confirms, giving his son a kiss in the forehead.

"Yaaay, picnic with dad and daddy" Lotor shouts out in celebration and squirms around until Zarkon is forced to set him down on the floor to let the child run around and out of the room. "I'll tell the kitchen staff that I’m going to make lunch for my dads," Lotor says and in the next tick, Zarkon and Keith could hear him yelling down the halls that his daddy is back he’s going out with his parents for a picnic.

Keith looks at his husband, trying to hold his happy smile. He couldn't remember the last time he saw Zarkon carrying and even looking at Lotor with such affection. Keith tried hard to restrain himself but he couldn't stand it, and started to cry, pulling Zarkon into a hug.

"You did it... you really became his father," Keith says tearfully but so happy, this right here was all he has wanted for so long. Zarkon hugs his lover tightly, feeling so stupid that he caused Keith to cry for something that should be normal.

"Thank you for opening my eyes. I was so blind all these years. I honestly do not know how you did not give up on me" the words are said quiet and grateful, Keith has always been the light at the end of the tunnel in the Emperor's life.

"There's nothing to be thankful for, you did this all alone in the past phobe, I just had to give you a push. I would never give up on you, you fool. Until death do us part, remember?" Keith whispers the words back, just as quite, and Zarkon slowly wipes away the tears from the Altean, not resisting the urge to leave a kiss on his beloved.

“I am so happy for you. I have never seen Lotor so comfortable at your side... I have never seen him so...” Keith pauses, his eyes narrowing, “messy..." Keith happy tone traits off, remembering his son's condition earlier. Lotor’s clothes had been nearly destroyed, his soft cheek covered with a too thin cut, his hair messy, and his tiny hand holding the arm of a sentry bot.

"Don't you have something to tell me?" Keith says in a particular tone that made Zarkon smile sheepishly, trying not to look guilty.

"Love of my heart and my life, I can explain." He tries to say it affectionately and mimic the expression that always seems to soften Keith's heart, but the other's rigid gaze is enough for Zarkon to know that just sweet words and an awkward smile won't do anything to Keith’s resolve.

"I have all day to hear your explanation.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please point out any mistake you may see.


End file.
